The Racing Game Thread

[METALMAN]

They’re saving that for the Michael Masi DLC

[Twist]

Finished off 3rd in the constructors, about 50 points off Red Bull and 100 or so off Ferrari.

Racked up a total of 7 wins. 4 for Alonso, 3 for Ocon. Alonso finished 3rd in the Driver’s but was off the pace in the end (all Ocon’s wins were DNFs for Alonso, so there’s a bit of what if ism there).

I rewarded Alonso by not renewing his contract and putting George Russell in his seat.

Seem to have gotten the 2023 car development right. First few races have been crap shoots between Mercedes, Red Bull and us. Russell pipped Hamilton to victory in the first race, Max won the second and then Ocon won the third race. Ferrari meanwhile have completely fallen away.

Lot of driver moves in the off season.

Alonso to Alfa Romeo.

Gasly to Mercedes.

Vettel to Alpha Tauri.

Stroll to Williams.

Mick Schumacher and Tsunoda to Aston Martin.

No new names on the grid though. Although Piastri ended up as the reserve driver at McLaren after I replaced him with Pouchaire at the beginning the first season.

[METALMAN]

See whenever Ricciardo gets overtaken by a bloody Haas or something and goes on the radio and says OH ALL RIGHTY THEN. Makes me want to slap him. No wonder he got canned.

[Schlitzbrille]

For as wildly borderline-bullshit the physics can get as you get into the higher classes, Shift 2 Unleashed has been surprisingly alright now I picked it up again.

Track variety is right up my alley, even just in real-world venues:

• your Spa/Brands Hatch/Laguna Seca/Monza/Silverstone "yep games has remotely sim tendancies chuck it in" tier
• your Donington Park/Autopolis "that's a pleasant surprise"
• your Dijon-Prenois/Suzuka West/Rouen "wait what I'm so in"

Seriously, I'd like it if Suzuka West was in more sims because there's only so many times I can do Suzuka East for a shorter course there.

[Twist]

Started a game with Mercedes.

Got through a few seasons and the pack really starts to bunch up, despite that only four teams have ever won a race and took until season three for McLaren to win a couple.

The drivers are super over powered. If you have the top guys then no matter how poor your car you’ll still get wins. In my third season I had maybe the 3rd worse car on the grid and still only lost the Drivers and Constructors on the last race of the season.

Also took until season 4 to see any new drivers on the grid and now we’ve got about 5 at once. Lot of movement between teams though.

it’s a good, enjoyable game with the scope to be brilliant.

[JasonM]

I think for now I am certainly sticking to Motorsport Manager and even Grand Prix Manager 2 for my racing manager fix.

F1 Manager looks great and has so much potential, but also has some absolute duffers in terms of bugs and just general design choices.

Seeing people get 1-2s with Haas or Alfa in season 1 is a bit too mad for me.

Motorsport Manager is hard to customize outright, but working your way up with a create a team felt like a proper multi year adventure. And in GPM2 just staying solvent as a backmarker was a monumental challenge in its own right.

[The Lusophone]

Support for F1 Manager is ending after just two months with several of the biggest bugs going unfixed.

[9 to 5]

Fucking hell. 😕

[Bobfoc]

I can't say I've encountered any major bugs myself. Frontier's decision to end support so soon is disappointing, but I think it's a good, solid game in its current state.

[Chris2K]

It looks like it's so they can focus all their attention on the 2023 game, after all it is the time of year F1 teams stop updating their 2022 model and focus on the 2023 car .

From what I've seen it's a game with a really solid foundation, so if they can expand on the 22 version whilst also fixing the bugs (traffic blocking in qualifying, cars unable to unlap themselves and unrealistic crash outcomes seeming to be the main ones) then they should be able to produce the definitive management game.

[METALMAN]

I think what they’ve done with the races is great - that really goes beyond what I expected - but the rest of the game is so dry. At no point do you feel like your drivers or staff are actual people. Given that so much of F1 is about rivalries (invented or real) and personalities it is odd to see so little of that represented. You might hate me for saying it, but I’d like to see more of the Drive to Survive type stuff.

I mean it doesn’t need to be ludicrous, but FM does it (admittedly they’ve had years to refine it). In FM people can fall out, not be able to handle the pressure, mouth off to the media, lose their motivation and so on.

For instance, if you make the assumption that Daniel Ricciardo at McLaren is the wrong person at the wrong team at the wrong time (rather than assume that he just became a crap driver) you have a situation that can’t be replicated on F1 Manager the way it is.  When it comes to off-track stuff F1 Manager 22 is still a long way off Motorsport Manager and when you consider that Motorsport Manager is like seven years old you really should be expecting better from Frontier.

It’s a good game and a good start but there’s still a long way for it to go for it to become a top tier sports management game. 

Also in next year's game I'd like the option to boot the Las Vegas, Miami and Qatar GPs the fuck out of the schedule.

[The Lusophone]

Motorsport Manager with a couple of mods renders F1 Manager 22 entirely moot - and I think that the series is not going to progress as much as the fan base wants.

[Baddar]

Pre-loading the 10 hour trial of NFS Unbound. Want to give it a try this week as it might turn into a Christmas present if I like it.

[Baddar]

Can confirm that I love the graphical style of the game. Only done a handful of races as well as a quick 3 race series against somebody online. It's good.

[Bobfoc]

Frontier share prices have dropped 40%, with the studio blaming it on disappointing F1 Manager 2022 sales. It makes me wonder if they're going to pull the plug on the series now.

[Bobfoc]

F1 Manager 2023 has been announced. It seemed as if it might not happen, so I'm glad. With any luck, they'll add in some new driver/staff interaction features.

[METALMAN]

Mechanical failures would be nice too. Which is a really basic thing that even the first iteration should have had but better late than never.

[Bobfoc]

New features include managing the training schedules of pit crews, dynamic racing lines and driver confidence. It seems that there won't be a create-a-team option, while mechanical failures haven't been mentioned.

[Meacon Keaton]

Unless quite a bit more is added, it's likely going to be a pass for me. I enjoyed the first version, but I'm not going to buy the new one just to manage my pit crew.

[METALMAN]

Yeah I’m quite surprised that’s all they’ve come out with. There’s far more that needs to be done and I imagine I’d just leave pit crew training untouched like I leave training on Football Manager untouched.